I'm so glad that you have found my blog. Its main purpose is to provide items of interest to orthodox Anglicans who love the Gospel of Jesus, believe the Catholic Faith, yearn for the Church's unity and work for the evangelisation of the world. God bless you.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Father Hunwicke has - yet again - an excellent post on his blog on the culture of death with which even Christians unwittingly collaborate in our day. I have reproduced it below. Go HERE to Fr Hunwicke's blog . . . some of the comments attached to this post on the original blog are very moving, too.

Not long ago, at Sunday Vespers in the Oratory, the pews in front of me were filled with swarms of little girls and a boy or two; that is, a young couple with six small children. I felt quite outdone; Pam and I only managed five ... and we aren't often outdone.

I hope the young woman has a sympathetic Catholic GP. When we were proli-fic in the '60s and '70s, the medical profession already got very heavy-handed with women who entered upon four or more pregnancies - even if the women concerned were highly intelligent graduates who might be presumed to be capable of thought and of rational decision. I just hate to think how dirigiste this overweening (do I mean bloodthirsty?) profession must by now have become.

Among the things one notices if one holidays annually in Ireland is the sight of people with Down's Syndrome. It is no more remarkable to see them in the streets than to see, say, a West Indian or someone in a wheel-chair, in Britain. When you get back to Blighty, the streets seem suddenly strange because there aren't any. Then it dawns on you why there aren't any. Rather as, just after the cattle trucks had rumbled off to the East, it must have been strange ... and then disconcerting and very frightening ... to wander round a German town and see no Jewish faces. Ugly, isn't it, that the role performed in Nazi Germany by Gestapo or SS is performed in Britain by members of Caring Professions whom we each of us have to visit, especially as we get older, for our aches and infirmities. If anything, ours is a spookier ... well, let's be frank ... an even more evil society ... than Hitler's; one in which the Evil has dug its roots even deeper than it had in his Germany, because it is internalised among more people and more groups and more classes and more structures; and has been so manipulated that, far from being concealed, it is publicly appauded by our Media; and because the killing is, by a Diabolical masterstroke, disguised as Caring and performed by men and women whom we take for granted to be gentle. And yet, throughout my ministry, I've felt that I ought to discipline myself not to mention abortion too often in sermons lest people decide I am fixated on only one thing; or lest I traumatise women who've had abortions. How evil does infect us all.

Spare a prayer for brave young women who embark upon a willed pregnancy and have to face some medical bully. Spare more prayers for those put under enormous pressure to have 'tests' to see whether their 'foetus' is 'abnormal'. Find some more prayers for those who are assured, by kind and sympathetic people who only want to help them, that it would be wholly irresponsible to encumber the world with a Down's Syndrome human being. And don't forget, in your prayers, those other victims; the women who have already been deceived and seduced into complicity in the killing of their own children.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

I guess it's human nature to want everything to be "just perfect" - in spite of the fact that every man, woman and child experiences life as a combination of joy and pain. There are no exceptions. Not one!

In fact, I want you to notice that the Bible goes out of its way to emphasise this mingling of joy and pain when talking about the ﬁrst Christmas.

Think of Mary who has to tell her ﬁance that the child within her is not his. Think of trying to convince one's betrothed that the pregnancy is due to nothing less than the power of God! (God himself had to help convince Joseph!)

Think of the arduous journey to Bethlehem, the circumstances of the birth among animals in the cave.

Think of the Holy Family trudging to Egypt as refugees, and staying there for two years, until it was safe to go home.

Think of the blood that ran in the streets of Bethlehem, and the wailing of inconsolable parents when all the baby boys under the age of two were slaughtered by soldiers in a vain attempt at killing Jesus.

Think of the thirty years at Nazareth - God in earthy human ﬂesh. God himself eating, speaking, sleeping and sweating, his hands bearing the calluses of weariness and work.

Think of the joy, but think also of the pain - the journey to the cross that overshadowed the life of this holy Child. Because it was the REAL world into which he came, the REAL world he wanted to save, it could not be otherwise.

It should seem obvious as we read the Bible that God the Father didn't smooth out the pathway ahead of Jesus, nor that of those who were closest to him. He suffered greatly; and they shared in his suffering, his poverty, his labour and his pain. This was crucial to God's way of saving the world. These things are, as we might say "the birth-pangs of the new age".

Today's Gospel gives us a glimpse of the special pain embraced by Mary and Joseph when Jesus desired - even at twelve years of age - to be about his "Father's business."

Thank God that Christmas is a time of joy, sharing, singing and praise; a time of exchanging gifts and greetings; a time even of rekindled faith, as treasured childhood memories and religious sentiments are revived by the trappings of the holy season.

Let's celebrate as sumptuously as we can. God would want that. So long as we don't forget that Christmas is also for those who ﬁnd their faith journey a bit of a stumble: those living in poverty; those who suffer pain at this time of the year because they have outlived their friends; or their families have crumbled; or they are separated by great distance from loved ones; or they struggle with psychological illnesses; or they just - in all honesty - ﬁnd it so hard to believe.

You are here today because coming to Mass is the best way of entering into the joy of this season. You know that every Mass is ANOTHER CALVARY, where the "one perfect sufﬁcient sacriﬁce, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world" is offered to the Father; but you also know that every Mass is ANOTHER BETHLEHEM where Jesus comes among us in as real a way as when he lay in the manger. There it is again: joy and pain mingling for our salvation.

So, my brothers and sisters, it remains for me to remind you that whatever circumstances you face at this particular moment, you can trust the Lord. In leaping from the throne of glory via the Virgin's ﬁat into this world which - for all of its beauty and wonder - we had turned into the gutter of the universe, he has already shown how much he loves you. He is "the same, yesterday, today and forever," and if you reach out to him today, you will know his love, his strength, and his healing power supporting and sustaining you ... in your joy as well as in your pain.

Or, as I quoted in my Christmas newsletter:

"You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich." (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

O EMMANUEL,our King and Lawgiver,the Desire of all nations and their Saviour:Come and save us, O Lord our God.

MASS READINGS: Malachi 3:1-4, 4:5-6; Luke 1:56-66

IN ALL HUMILITY . . .John the Baptist was chosen by God and became one of his greatest prophets. As a baby he was helpless and needy. As a prophet, he displayed the same humility. Like all the saints, he above all else knew his need for God.

Real prophets are humble. They understand that without God's grace they are nothing. (False prophets are just the opposite!) When asked who he was, John said: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord" (Jn 1:23). If we are successfully to beckon our contemporaries to Jesus, we will need the samehumility of heart, seeing ourselves as John saw himself - as instruments in the hand of God.

John’s humility has deeply impressed Christians through the ages. Before anyone had heard of Jesus of Nazareth, people were travelling vast distances to see John the Baptist. Yet he always pointed to Jesus and away from himself. “He must increase, I must decrease” (Jn 3:30), was what he said. John actually encouraged his disciples to leave him and follow Jesus.

We, too, as a prophetic people, are called to be poor in spirit. In any case, for the self-sufficient, the proud, those who think they have no need of a Saviour, there will be no REAL Christmas. Only the poor in spirit, those who hunger for God, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will know that Someone. That someone is Jesus, our Emmanuel, our God-with-us.

Let’s examine our hearts to see if we are properly prepared with the right spiritual disposition to receive Jesus this Christmas, the King of kings, who humbled himself and was born in a manger.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

O KING OF NATIONS,thou for whom they long,the Cornerstone that makest them both one:Come and save thy creatureswhom thou didst fashion from the dust of the earth.

MASS READINGS: 1 Samuel 1:24-28; 2:1,4-8; Luke 1:46-56

MY SOUL DOTH MAGNIFY THE LORDToday's Gospel is the response Mary made to Elizabeth's acknowledgment of her blessedness. Mary's words are infused with expressions found in other Biblical canticles and songs which she clearly knew off by heart. On her lips, however, the words are imbued with a far deeper meaning than they had in the Old Testament. Mary's rejoicing begins with the stark acknowledgment that she is "saved by grace" ("my spirit hath rejoiced in God MY SAVIOUR"). Incidentally this is one of the truths that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception seeks to guard.

In union with Mary and the Church down through the ages we pray her song, "the Magnificat" EVERY DAY at Evensong (or "Vespers"). The Church makes these words her own, singing exuberantly the song of Mary's rejoicing, and, incidentally, reminding ourselves that our only hope of salvation is God's grace.

With Mary - who is often said to have "foreshadowed" the Church - we bless and thank God for his loving-kindness and grace, and all the other blessing he has given us.

Mary is struck by her own lowliness before the immensity of God's power and greatness, for he has worked wonders. As we sing her song, we, too, will be humbled by that same power and greatness; most of all we will be smitten by his love.

We are approaching the end of Advent. Today Mary shows us way. Mulling over her prayer in faith, humility and love, and making it our own by faith, will help us to be ready for the coming of Jesus.

Monday, December 21, 2009

O DAY-SPRING FROM ON HIGH,Brightness of Eternal Light,and Sun of righteousness:Come and enlighten thosewho sit in darkness and the shadow of death.

MASS READINGS: Song of Songs 2:8-14, Luke 1:39-45

ANOTHER FOCUSMost of us have realized at one time or another, no matter how fleetingly, that the solution to many of our personal problems may be found in just forgetting ourselves. More positively, in concentrating our attention and energy on someone else or on some good cause. Today we think of Mary - after her words of acceptance to the Angel - "making haste", climbing up into the hill country to share with her cousin Elizabeth (and John the Baptist discerning the sacredness of this Visitation from the vantage point of his mother's womb!). Possibly Mary went in order to share with Elizabeth what had happened to her; but undoubtedly she made that arduous journey so as to assist Elizabeth - a much older woman - in her pregnancy. We read that Mary stayed there for three months.

What a visit! No wonder it has a feast day of its own in the middle of the year. Notice that the older woman says she is "honoured" with a visit from "the mother of my Lord."

It is also significant that Elizabeth says to Mary, "And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord" (v.45). May we be known as children of Mary who always believe that the Lord will fulfil his word!

There is, of course, a sense in which the Church is foreshadowed in Mary's visit to Elizabeth. As Mary carried Jesus within her and brought great joy to her cousin, so our vocation is to bless others by bringing Jesus to them.

This beautiful prayer is very appropriate for today:

Almighty Father of our Lord Jesus Christyou have revealed the beauty of your powerby exalting the lowly virgin of Nazarethand making her the mother of our Saviour.May the prayers of this womanbring Jesus to a waiting worldand fill the void of incompletionwith the presence of her child,who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spiritone God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

O KEY OF DAVID,Sceptre of the house of Israel,who openest and no man shutteth,and shuttest and no man openeth;Come and bring forth out of the prisonhousehim that is bound.

MASS READINGS: Isaiah 7:10-14; Luke 1:26-38(Although we had different readings in church on account of today being a Sunday, these are the readings actually set for 20th December.)

ON THE WINGS OF PRAYERWe all know friends or relatives in difficult circumstances: struggling with cancer, separated from loved ones, depressed or discouraged, saddened by death or other losses. What can we say or do?

"I'll pray for you", "I'll remember you at Mass", or "I'll light a candle for you" are the kind of things we might say. To those without faith those expressions might mean very little. But when Christians promise to pray for others, our promise is based on what the Angel said to Mary: "Nothing is impossible with God" (better translated as "No word of God is lacking in power").

Speaking to Ahaz, God makes the same statement: "Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven." (Isaiah 7:11)

Mary models the kind of faith that makes "I'll pray for you" really mean something. In his sonnet, "The Lantern out of Doors", Gerard Manley Hopkins, speaks of his and our concern for friends who for various reasons are no longer within the reach of any good we can do. Where we can't go, he says, Christ follows and cares; in his words, Christ is "their ransom, their rescue, and first, fast, last friend." One of the lessons of Advent is persistence in prayer. Because we believe nothing is impossible for God, we trust that God can care for others and do for them good beyond our little conceptions.

FROM BARRENNESS TO FRUITFULNESSToday's First Reading from the book of Judges recounts the birth of Samson. His father's name was Manoah and came from Zorah, in the territory of Dan. (Dan was one of the twelve sons of Jacob.) The wife, whose name is not given, is barren - the greatest curse a married woman could suffer in her society. She shares this fate with some other prominent women in the Old Testament - Sara, the mother of Isaac; Rebecca, the mother of Jacob; Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel; and, of course, in today's Gospel, Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist.

An angel of the Lord appears to her, saying, "You will conceive and bear a son." From his very conception Samson is to be regarded as a Nazirite, in preparation for his special vocation. In so many ways this episode foreshadows the birth of John the Baptist, of which we read in today’s Gospel, beginning with Zechariah’s encounter with the angel, Gabriel, and his subsequent period of silence to ponder the angel’s promise of John’s birth to his “barren (until then) wife, getting on in years."

Today’s readings emphasise that nothing is impossible to God. He is faithful to his promises. Time and time again in the history of Israel, God had acted in the midst of everyday human life. Time and time again the people had at first failed to recognize his presence and then come to believe him.

It is good for us to remember that Zechariah sees his vision in the course of faithfully carrying out his ordinary tasks. That he is slow to believe is easy to understand. When God breaks through into our ordinary, everyday lives, it can be hard to believe that it is happening. Let us ask the Lord to help us grow in faith, and – as the Church – pass from the barrenness which we know only too well to real fruitfulness that the Lord will be glorified in our time.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

O ADONAI,Captain of the house of Israel,who didst appear to Mosesin the flame of the burning bush,and gavest him the law on Sinai:Come and deliver uswith thine outsretched arm.

MASS READINGS: Jeremiah 23:508;Matthew 1:18-25

HOME FROM EXILE:Even people who like travelling say, "How good it is to be home." This is much more the case for those who have been forcibly driven out of their homes or even deported. In our own time we are familiar with the sight of wandering, homeless refugees.

In today's first reading, the prophet Jeremiah promises that God will give the israelites a new king, a good king, unlike the previous ones who had been responsible for the people's hardships, including their exile. It is said of the new king that he will bring the house of Israel back from all the lands to which thy were banished. "They shall again live on their own land."

In celebrating the season of Advent, the Church helps us to come back home from our exile, our state of being away from God, of being lost in a world of greed, violence and selfishness.

No matter how well life goes for us, or how well adjusted to it we become, in this world we will always have a sense of exile from our true and lasting home. In fact our REAL exile is self-imposed whenever we try to organize our life around something other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

By using the Advent season to point us day after day to the coming of Jesus, the Church tries to make sure that we are focussed on our true home. That true home is, of course, life in eternity with God; yet that same life bursts in upon us here and now wherever Jesus is allowed to be king over our lives.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

In the Church's traditional cycle of prayer, Evening Prayer, also called Vespers, always includes the great song of Mary known as the Magnificat. This song is preceded and followed by a short verse or "antiphon" that links it to the feast of the day or the season of the year. In the last seven days of Advent (December 17-24), the Magnificat antiphons are very special. Each begins with the exclamation "O" and ends with a plea for the Messiah to come. As Christmas approaches the cry becomes increasingly urgent.

These "O Antiphons" were composed in the seventh or eighth century when monks put together some of the key Old Testament texts and phrases looking forward to our salvation. They form a rich, interlocking mosaic of Scriptural images; in the Middle Ages the custom grew of ringing the great bells of the church each evening as they were being sung.

A particularly fascinating feature of the O Antiphons is that the first letter of each invocation, when read backwards, forms an acrostic in Latin: the first letters of Sapientia, Adonai, Radix, Clavis, Oriens, Rex, and Emmanuel in reverse form the Latin words: ERO CRAS. These are understood as the words of Jesus, responding to his people's plea, saying "Tomorrow I will be there."

I have adapted the short reflection on the Scripture readings for each of these days from Homilies for Weekdays, by Don Talafous (Liturgical Press, 2005).

O WISDOM,that camest out of the mouth

of the Most High,reaching from one end

to another,firmly and gently ordering all things:

Come and teach us the way of understanding.

MASS READINGS: Genesis 49:2, 8-10, Matthew 1:1-17

THAT FAMILY BACKGROUNDIn our personal reading of Scripture we are likely to skip over genealogies and assume there is nothing interesting in them. Matthew's genealogy, however, is very interesting. In this list of names, we see God's grace at work in ways we do not expect. The patriarchs are the first group of people mentioned. Not all of them were noble or saintly. Jacob, for example, stole his father's blessing, cheating his older brother. Israel's kings make up the next group. They reflect the best and the worst of human nature. Some are idolaters, murderers, and adulterers, like King David. Unknown people make up the third group. Yet God is at work among them. (It has often been pointed out, too, that the women in this genealogy have marital histories that include scandal and scorn.)

Jesus has an interesting family tree! It emphasises the work of God's grace in the flow of real history with real people, saints and sinners alike. It encourages us to look for signs of his grace in our lives.

For many years I was in the habit of being grumpy for just about all of Advent. The reason, of course, is that while in our tradition we try to observe the season as the Church intended, the world around us was already into Christmas carols and Santa Claus songs. It seemed a bit like getting straight to Easter Day without journeying through Holy Week.

Now, I still think we should try to keep a “proper” Advent observance when we can. It’s good for us to ponder the “four last things” and focus on the return of Jesus in glory to wind up human history. And what could possibly rival a really well done “Advent Lessons and Carols” service, climaxing with the triumphant hymn, “Lo, he comes with clouds descending . . .?”

But I now think that we should give up being grumpy about Christmas carols in Advent . . . especially the secular kind of “Carols by Candelight” that have evolved into mega performances with vast numbers of entertainers singing with massed choirs and orchestras. Why? I have noticed that in recent years at least some of these events involve good and devout people who work really work hard to convey something of the authentic Gospel. In Australia we have a handful of entertainers of different traditions whose real Christian faith has a capacity to reach people on such occasions when the words of a preacher would almost certainly fall on deaf ears.

Take Silvie Paladino, for example, quite clearly one of our most versatile and talented entertainers performing throughout Australia, Asia and London’s West End. Through key theatrical roles, solo concert performances, as well as entertaining at major sporting events (including her rendition of the National Anthem at the AFL grand final!), Silvie has become a household name. (Visit her website HERE.)

Each year Silvie sings at Australia’s largest and most spectacular Carols by Candelight in the Melbourne Myer Music Bowl. It is televised nationally. She always manages to re-focus the attention onto Jesus, not just the baby Jesus of the manger, but the Saviour who reaches out to us now with his love and healing, and the Lord of glory who will reign for ever and ever. Her sincere devotion turns a secular crowd - if just for a few minutes - into a congregation as she sings the Lord’s praises.

This video is of Silvie Paladino singing “Your grace still amazes me” at the 2006 Carols by Candelight. I'm sure it will be a blessing to you.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Father Arthur Stanton was a leader of the Catholic Revival in the Church of England, an "evangelical catholic" preacher who drew large crowds, and for 50 years he was a curate at St Alban's Holborn, London. He died at the age of 74 in 1913. Go HERE for his life's story. This is a sermon he preached at the start of Advent 1910, at St Alban's.

Now it is high time to awake out of sleep." - Rom. xiii. 11.

These are S. Paul's words to the Romans, but is there any exhortation at this time more needed than that? I beseech you, one and all, "Owe no man anything." Pay all your debts. Be just. The man who owes money and has not paid commits an injustice. I wish the parsons in the West End would preach about this. A good many shops in the West End are being ruined simply because the people never pay their debts, and owe thousands. Here is practical Christianity: "Owe no man anything," S. Paul says - but there is one debt - "Love one another."

And again I say, isn't that exactly what we want? All round about in the world of politics everybody is abusing the opposite party, setting one political party against the other. You read the newspapers on both sides, and see. "Owe no man anything, but to love one another." O Christian men and women in the middle of all this strife and turmoil, here is your motto for this December, "Owe no man anything, but to love one another." Could there be a better Advent message to us all than this?

Being Advent, we are bound to look into the state of our spiritual life. We are bound to judge ourselves lest we be judged of God. Do you, dear brethren, all of you take stock of what your spiritual life is, and ask yourselves, Have I discharged all my debts? How can I give Christmas presents to anybody if I owe money? Take stock of yourselves about love. How can you pay that debt? Oh, it is a beautiful text! " Owe no man anything, but to love one another." Have you discharged your debt of love? Now is the time. There is plenty of opportunity. When other men are going about heaping on one another political abuse and poison, you go about with Evangelical grace.

Then the Apostle goes on to say, "It is high time to awake out of sleep." Now is the time - at this moment - for the practical Christianity of today. There are some people who tell us they want to go back to the immaculate Early Church. That is rather nonsense. You would not be a man in swaddling clothes? - Why, then, do you want the Church today to be in the clothes of its infancy? I know there are many difficulties in the Church today, and so there were then. Many then denied the Lord who bought them, and counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith they were sprinkled, unholy. There are troubles in the Church of England, I know. We have our troubles - but we live in the twentieth century. I love Mediaevalism - I think it is beautiful, but we could not go back to that. Where there is life there is progress, development. We never can be mediaeval again. No, let us be true Christians now, in the century in which we live. Now, let us awake.

Some of us, dear brethren, are sound asleep. We have no sense of any spiritual awakening. Perhaps we have received our religion from others, and taken it for granted, but we cannot feel within ourselves that we are wedded to Christ and lhs Cross. We have no "experiences." I remember a clergyman who was older than myself saying to me once, "Stanton, Stanton! What on earth do these people mean by talking of the spiritual life?" And that was thirty years ago.

There are some of us so fast asleep that we do not know what is meant by the spiritual awakening. There is no vision of that which is beyond. There is no looking forward to the hereafter. We go through our religion in a way, but what is it to us? We are sound asleep. And today I say: "Awake! Awake! Begin." "O quicken Thou me according to Thy word." (Ps. cxix. 25). For goodness' sake, don't be asleep. "It is high time to awake out of sleep."

Then, again, there are some of us who are falling off fast. We know it. We feel it within us. We are dropping off to sleep spiritually; that is, there was a time when we prayed, but now we say prayers as a matter of course, but never pray. We come and sing hymns. We like the music of the hymns, but there is no melody in our soul. Then, again, we go to Communion - we have received the Sacrament on the tongue, but the presence of the Saviour is not realised in the soul. There was a time when we used to creep to church, put our hands before our face and think of our sins, and tell the Master, and it may have been that some tears came into our eyes and trickled through our fingers. It does not happen now. I know some of us still go to Confession. We used to feel that we kissed the wounded Feet. But now it has become a sort of form; and we ask ourselves, "Well, what good does it do us?" We might as well ask ourselves, "What good does Holy Communion do us?" "What good do our prayers do us?" We are falling off.

And the worst of it is, dear brethren, as you know perfectly well, other people, when we are so sleepy, stumble over us. We lie in the way, and they stumble and fall over us. The unbeliever says, "I told you so. It was all nonsense, and you never found it out." The worldly man says, "My dear fellow, I told you it would never pay. It cannot work." And the cynic says, "Of course, now you have got older and wiser, my friend, you won't believe it." They stumble over us. Sloth is a deadly sin. It is a sin within the sanctuary. Oh, sloth is the canker of the sanctuary. Do not let us forget the truth that the only people who can crucify the Lord afresh, and put the dear Master to open shame are those who have known and have loved him, and have deserted him. Is it nothing to us to remember that Jesus Christ was deserted of all? Oh! Sloth and slumber in religion is a deadly sin. Awake! Come back! Awake!

Again, there is the third point, which is this: some of us are somnambulists. Have you ever seen a somnambulist? It is a curious state. They are alive, yet not alive. They seem to know things in a way, and they do not know them. They never have any remembrance in the morning of what they have done. Well, so it is with spiritual people - with some of us - we are somnambulists. We say our prayers, and we do not know what we say. You have come to church to night, and if asked "Why?" you might say, "Well, I really hardly know - but I thought I would." And if I ask: "Do you feel the movement of the service? Does your soul go out of you to something higher you would say: "What on earth is the fellow talking about?" We can go to our prayers, to our Communions, and come away, and hardly know we have been. Did you say your prayers this morning? And you answer, "I do not know - I am not sure." "When did you make your last Communion?" "Well, I think it must have been about a couple of months ago." Why, we are walking in our sleep - somnambulists in grace. We go through the form, but we are lost. The life and the music of the Gospel does not sound, and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ does not build up the soul. And yet, after all, you are what you would call a "good Churchman." Oh, how many feel this! I know, when I speak to you, there are many here who feel this deeply. We think and walk in our sleep, knowing it is high time to awake out of sleep. My brethren, I say the world is wide awake. Look at this political crisis, they call it. Why here, there, and everywhere, the political world is awake. I saw on the placards today, "Working men, awake and claim your rights"; "Women revert to war." And I say to us Christians, Awake! It is high time. We are citizens of heaven. Let us claim our right to eternal citizenship. We are citizens of the world to come. Awake, women! Revert to war - war against sin, the world, the flesh and the devil; war against the injustices and inequalities you see round about you. War against everything that is bad. Oh, ever since the Blessed Mary brought Christ into the world should women carry salvation in their arms. You and I, who were created by God, and redeemed by God, it is not for us to be asleep. It is high time to awake out of sleep.

Now, just a few reasons why it is high time to awake out of sleep. Because of the coming of the Lord. The Lord shall come with all his saints. We look forward to the coming of the Lord. Christians are ever like that; they stand waiting with their loins girt about, and their lamps burning. And do you say that the Lord delays his coming, and that a thousand years have past, and he has not come? Stand back and look out into eternity. Why do you talk like that, you who live under the Kingdom of God? What is a thousand years before the great range of eternity? It is but as a moment. It is as nothing. Just as this world is to an atom of space, so is a thousand years before the eternal years. Oh, he will come. On the Mount of Transfiguration, the Disciples fell asleep; when they awoke they saw, Jesus in all his glory. Awake! It is high time to awake, to see the Master in all His glory, "As seeing Him who is invisible" (Heb. xi. 27). If you are awake, you shall see the glory transcending all else. "Surely, I come quickly," he says, and he will. To every one of us the Master comes.

So I am watching quietly

Every day,

Whenever the sun shines brightly

I rise and say,

Surely it is the shining of his face,'

And look unto the gates of his high place

Beyond the sea,

For I know He is coming shortly

To summon me.

And when a shadow falls across the window

Of my room,

Where I am working my appointed task,

I lift my head to watch the door, and ask

if he is come;

And the Angel answers sweetly

In my home,

"Only a few more shadows,

And he will come."

We who are Christians stand waiting for the coming of the Master. That is our Advent position. Awake out of sleep. Stand up, man - gird your loins, let the lamp be burning in the sanctuary of the soul, and wait for the coming of the Lord.

Then let us awake and be ready because our opportunities are passing away one by one. "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith " (Gal. vi. 10). Now is your opportunity. You know the old motto " I shall pass through this world but once, any good thing therefore I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now, let me not defer it, or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."

Many of you may die before next Advent. Let me say to myself what I would have you say, "While I have the chance now, as long as I have the chance - let me do all the good I can." The sands are running out. I shall not have many more opportunities, let me be as kind as I can, as helpful as I can, and worship God as well as I can." Time, is going, going! Awake!! Awake!

Not many lives, but only one have we

Frail, fleeting man!

How sacred should that one life ever be

That narrow span!

Day after day filled up with blessed toil;

Hour after hour still bringing in new spoil!

(From Ezekiel and other Poems, by B. M. Bonar.)

Don't let the candle splutter out till the sanctuary lamp is lit. Because the sands are running out, and the time is getting shorter and shorter, it is high time that we awake out of sleep.

And last of all, dear brethren, "For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." For our salvation is the destiny which God has prepared for us. If you ask yourselves, "What is the reason of my creation and redemption?" The answer is - it must be - God needs my flesh - God never created the soul without it, and the soul shall pass on into perfection.

". . . him that is able to keep you from falling," says St. Jude, " and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." The end of existence of God's creature must be the perfection of his creation. For this Christ died, for this the Holy Spirit of God was put into your hearts, to worship, to serve him - this is the end, even the salvation of your souls, the perfection of your life. Why did God create us? S. Augustine says, " God created man for himself." There is no other explanation. Read the 121st Psalm, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh even from the Lord, who hath made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: and he that keepeth thee will not sleep." There is a religion for you!

Well, then, knowing the time, "That now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer," so I call upon you this Advent, and I say, "Awake! Awake! Awake! knowing the time. Awake! All the world is awake, and we Christians for whom Christ died, are we to fall asleep? Awake!"

Monday, December 14, 2009

This is an extract from an Advent address given by Fr Colin who is Superior of the Community of the Servants of the Will of God, in the U.K. I have taken it from the Advent 2008 edition of the Church Observer, magazine of the Church Union. Go HERE to their we bite.His text is Mark 13.32-37: “Of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Watch therefore - for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning - lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch."

Advent is a time of waiting. Waiting to celebrate the coming of Christ as a child, born of the Virgin Mary at Bethlehem. It is a time of renewing our conviction that he will come again, to judge the world, and that his coming will be in power and great glory. We do not know when that will be, as he himself has told us that no one knows. Yet we still have to long for it and wait for it, and not settle down and think that because it has been such a long time, it will never happen. As he says in that gospel reading, each of us has our work to do and in doing that, we will keep ourselves ready.

All through Advent the bible readings and the hymns say the same thing - keep awake, be on your guard, lift up your heads, stand erect, look. Our first task, then, in keeping watch, is to remain faithful, to strengthen our faith through prayer, the scriptures, worship and service. We have to look at the priorities in our lives, how we use our time, how we use the opportunities that are given to us to love and care for others, how we work to build up the Church.

We have to notice what we do and say, we have to notice what we think, and we have to test that against the Gospel. When we notice that there is a disparity, then we have to repent, turn again in the right direction, look towards the Lord afresh. We have to exercise a responsibility for ourselves and for what we are but not get despondent when we feel we are not making a very good job of what we know God wants us to be because then we start looking down, turning away from him who is our hope.

All around us is a lot of despair, terrible suffering, much deep unhappiness. It comes right into our homes on the television and in the newspapers. We feel helpless in the face of it, the sheer complexity and size of it. The second task in keeping watch is not to let it get us down. There needs to be much com-passion and love, much prayer and doing what we can in practical ways - but we mustn’t let the fear and despair get inside us.

The celebration of the birth of Christ can help us to prevent that happening. He came, born of the Virgin Mary, poor, humble, vulnerable, small. This coming in extraordinary simplicity was God’s way of coming and sharing in our life and this shows us that he knows about all the pain and grief in the world, for he has been part of it himself.

Through his cross, resurrection and ascension to the Father, he has over-come death, the greatest fear, the greatest cause of despair, and opened up for us the way to return to the Father. It began in that simple, humble way. So we don’t have to worry about feeling small, insignificant, helpless. God himself has been like that.

Friday, December 11, 2009

The Isle of Iona is a small island off the west coast of Scotland, where in 563 Columba founded a Celtic monastery that was very influential in its own times. In the middle ages it was the site of a Benedictine abbey and over the centuries has attracted many thousands of people on their own pilgrim journeys.

The Iona Community, founded in 1938 by the Rev George MacLeod, then a parish minister in Glasgow, is an ecumenical Christian community that is committed to seeking new ways of living the Gospel in today's world. Initially this purpose was expressed through the rebuilding of the monastic quarters of the mediaeval abbey on Iona and pursued in mission and ministry throughout Scotland and beyond. Today the Iona Community has almost 250 Members, mostly in Britain, who live under a common Rule and seek to relate the experiences and insights of Celtic spirituality to modern life.

This Advent Prayer is from Cloth for the Cradle by the Iona Community Wild Goose Worship Group.

Open our eyes, Lord,especially if they are half shutbecause we are tired of looking,or half openbecause we fear we see too much,or bleared with tearsbecause yesterday and today and tomorroware filled with the same pain,or contracted,because we only look at what we want to see.

Open our eyes, Lord,to gently scan the life we lead,the home we have,the world we inhabit,and so to find,among the gremlins and the greyness,signs of hope we can fasten on and encourage.

Give us, whose eyes are dimmed by familiarity,a bigger vision of what you can doeven with hopeless cases and lost causesand people of limited ability.

Show us the world as in your sight,riddled by debt, deceit and disbeliefyet alsoshot through with possibilityfor recovery, renewal, redemption,

And lest we fail to distinguish vision from fantasy,today, tomorrow, this week,open our eyes to one person or one place,where we - being even for a moment prophetic -might identify and wean a potential in the waiting.

And with all this,open our eyes, in yearning, for Jesus.

On the mountains,in the cities,through the corridors of powerand streets of despairto help, to heal,to confront, to convert,O come, O come, Immanuel.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

"The Immaculate Conception of our Lady, was one of the Church of England's gifts to the rest of the Western Church. We borrowed it from the East in Saxon days; Norman bishops tried to ban it on the grounds that it wasn't observed in Rome; but we hung on to it and eventually Rome came round to our way of thinking. An early contribution of the Anglican Patrimony!"

So mused Fr John Hunwicke on his blog last week (with his tongue only half in his cheek!)

Here, then, are a few useful pointers from within the Anglican tradition for our reflection on this mighty work of God's grace:

THE OLD BATTLE: Discussing the differences between the Franciscans and Thomists of the middle ages, Eric Mascall wrote, "The point at issue was simply whether the grace which is normally conferred by baptism was given to her at the moment of her conception or while she was still in her mother's womb . . . And if there is any intellectual difficulty in the matter, I must say that it seems to me easier to believe in Mary's freedom from original than from actual sin . . . To suppose that Mary was free from actual sin without having received any special grace at her creation would seem to me to be very difficult and in fact to place an almost impossible burden upon human free will." (in The Mother of God pp 46-47)

SOME CLASSICAL ANGLICAN EXPRESSIONS: . . . Jesus Christ "Who being true and natural God, equal and of one substance with the Father, did at the time appointed take upon Him our frail nature, in the Blessed Virgin's womb, and that of her undefiled substance".

(From the Homily on Repentance, Homilies, Book 2, 1562)

Jesus . . . "born of a pure Virgin" (BCP Collect for Christmas Day) . . . "who by the operation of the Holy Ghost was made very man of the substance of the Virgin Mary his mother; and that without sin, to make us clean from all sin" (BCP Preface for Christmas Day)

"If Elizabeth cried out with so loud a voice, Blessed art thou among women, when Christ was but newly conceived in her womb, what expressions of honour and admiration can we think sufficient now that Christ is in heaven, and that Mother with him. Far be it from any Christian to derogate from that special privilege granted her, which is incommunicable to any other. We cannot bear too reverend a regard unto the Mother of our Lord, so long as we give her not that worship which is due unto the Lord himself."

(John Pearson, 1613-1686, Bishop of Chester - who, incidentally, was viciously anti-Roman - in his Exposition of the Creed.)

In England, the feast of the Conception of Mary was intimately associated with what was later defined as the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, and had been especially kept in England. Its retention in the Book of Common Prayer Calendar indicates at the very least that the Church of England did not intend to exclude belief in the doctrine.

(A quote from a paper I gave nearly 20 years ago to a group of clergy).

Later on, I said:

Until the early 18th century the Immaculate Conception was generally held by those of the "high church" Anglican Divines who wrote about our Lady. In beautiful but unremarkable language from a Catholic perspective Bishop Thomas Ken's poem for the Sunday after Epiphany includes these verses:

As Eve when she her fontal sin reviewed.

Wept for herself and all she should include,

Blest Mary with Man's Saviour in embrace

Joyed for herself and for all human race.

The Holy Ghost his temple in her built,

Cleansed from congenial, kept from mortal guilt,

And from the moment that her blood was fired,

Into her heart celestial love inspired.

FROM THE EVANGELICAL TRADITIONand at the same time echoing the teaching of Lumen Gentium: "The Immaculate Conception of Mary gives the clue to understanding her particular place among her son's people. She is the first Christian, the first of the redeemed, the first of our flawed human race to have received the fullness of redemption. From first to last - in Catholic dogma, from Immaculate Conception to Assumption - she was a human being, transformed by the grace of God into what, in the divine purpose, she was intended to be."

(John de Satge, in Mary and the Christian Gospel, page 74.)

ANGLICAN & ROMAN CATHOLIC STATEMENT: "It is not so much that Mary lacks something which other human beings 'have', namely sin, but that the glorious grace of God filled her life from the beginning.12 The holiness which is our end in Christ (cf. 1 John 3:2-3) was seen, by unmerited grace, in Mary, who is the prototype of the hope of grace for humankind as a whole. According to the New Testament, being 'graced' has the connotation of being freed from sin through Christ's blood (Ephesians 1:6-7). The Scriptures point to the efficacy of Christ's atoning sacrifice even for those who preceded him in time (cf. 1 Peter 3:19, John 8:56, 1 Corinthians 10:4). Here again the eschatological perspective illuminates our understanding of Mary's person and calling. In view of her vocation to be the mother of the Holy One (Luke 1:35), we can affirm together that Christ's redeeming work reached 'back' in Mary to the depths of her being, and to her earliest beginnings. This is not contrary to the teaching of Scripture, and can only be understood in the light of Scripture. Roman Catholics can recognize in this what is affirmed by the dogma - namely "preserved from all stain of original sin" and "from the first moment of her conception."

(Paragraph 59 of: "Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ", the agreed statement on Mary from the Anglican Roman International Commission (ARCIC) released in 2004 (). Go HERE for the full text of this document.)

AND TO COME FULL CIRCLE . . .

Here is the last bit of a sermon preached by Fr Hunwicke at Pusey House, Oxford, two years ago.

In a sermon I preached forty years ago, at the Mattins of Christmass Day in the year of my diaconate, I said that the Incarnation meant that God was in the belly of a Palestinian peasant girl who is Queen of Heaven. Critics fell into three categories: those who disliked my phrase because of its physicality and because it placed the origins of our faith among foreigners (surely Mary must have been a middle-class Englishwoman and if not a member of the WI then at least of the Young Wives); those who didn't like the phrase Queen of Heaven; and those who disliked both.

'The Immaculate Conception'. It's a lovely rolling phrase, isn't it (we classicists would analyse its rhythm as the trispondaicus). And it's a phrase, too, that can scare people silly. Is it sometimes the physicality - again, of conception - that disturbs them; conception, a process that occurs a little way south of the tummy button? Not the sort of thing the fastidious want to have dragged in front of their noses. C S Lewis points out that the devils too are fastidious in their horror at the flesh: Screwtape refers to a human as 'this animal, this thing begotten in a bed'. Or perhaps people are scared of the word 'Immaculate'; perhaps it suggests foreign religion - little old Irish women clutching their rosaries or Spanish ladies in black making their nine successive First Saturday communions in honour of the Immaculate Heart (a devotion which Cardinal Ratzinger with gentle irony once called 'surprising for people from the Anglo-Saxon and German cultural worlds'). But 'immaculate' is a completely biblical concept in its Hebrew and Greek equivalents: it means spotless; and only what is without blemish is truly for God (for example, a spotless sacrificial lamb). Because Mary is to be wholly for God, is to give God his body, to give God his endowment of genes, give God the food of her breast: so Mary by God's gift is to be the Immaculate, the one without blemish, the one in whom the Divine likeness has never been marred.

It is because Mary alone in the roots of her being is unmarked by sin that Mary alone is truly and wholly free. In our hearts, too, we should make her free and 'fear not'; she is never to be locked up in the tourist industry as a statue of doubtful taste carried in processions by foreign peasants for the English to photograph from within their coaches; Mary is not to be locked up by the Heritage business in a Merry England; she is not to be the Madonna of the Art Historians imprisoned in coffee table books.

If Mary is the Mother of God Incarnate, she is our Mother too, because we are in Christ, limbs of his body by our baptismal incorporation. Mary comes to us tonight, and what would a mother bring us her children except food; food for her children in exilio; food packed for our journey. Mary comes to this place and to this moment of time; Mary comes, bright with all the beauties known by men and angels; Mary comes to set upon our lips the blessed fruit of her womb Jesus.

Monday, December 7, 2009

It is not only John Henry Newman who is awaiting "official" canonization by the Church. Among others whose "causes" are being worked on at the moment in Rome is Catherine de Hueck Doherty (1896 - 1985), the foundress of Madonna House in Combermere, Canada. You can read about her, and the present ministry of Madonna House HERE.

The following is from Grace in Every Season : Through the Year with Catherine Doherty, Madonna House Publications, Ontaria, Canada, 2001.

I want to discuss with you this wondrous season of Advent, the days of expectation, of awaiting the desired one. I ask myself, do we really desire the Lord? To desire something is to be constantly absorbed in that desire. This Advent we should go deeply into our hearts, minds, and souls. Let us clean house, and make a loving manger for the Christ Child into which he can be born in all his splendour. One thing that can prevent this is looking at the world from the narrow cell of self. I suggest that for this Advent we remove from our vocabularies, from our conversations, our thoughts (and, if possible, from our dreams) the sentences: "I feel," "I want," and "I would like." Let us replace then with: "What does God want of me?" Let us bury the word "I Take a big shovel, make a big hole, stick the word "I" in there, and put a cross on top. Because the word "I" is the greatest enemy of he, she, and we. Remember that; it's very important. So try not to use the word "I," especially, "Oh I need this . . . Oh, I need that." No!

If this change of attitude takes place, our life would really take a giant leap toward peace and love, and hence toward happiness and joy. So do this for Advent, and do little things with great love for Christ. Then our minds, hearts, and souls will become a lovely manger in which the Lord can be born and grow to his full stature within us. When he does, we shall know happiness supreme.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Down in Sydney, one of the best resources to help us share the basics about believing in God with our secular friends is the CENTRE FOR PUBLIC CHRISTIANITY. Go to their website HERE. There are heaps of interesting essays, videos and mp3 audio talks put together to help "ordinary" Christians become thoughtful communicators.

They have made available some short videos of an interview with Professor Alvin Plantinga, a leading American philosopher, from the University of Notre Dame, where he is something of an institution having been there since 1982. He is especially well-known for his work in the philosophy of religion. Plantinga is one of the key reasons why we are experiencing a renaissance of interest in a philosophical defense of Christianity. His argument, made in the 1970s, that established that there is no ‘logical’ inconsistency in believing in an all-powerful loving God despite the reality of suffering, was something of a turning point in Philosophy.

In this interview at Notre Dame, Simon Smart talks to Plantinga about God, Richard Dawkins and personal faith. Plantinga provides a summary of his evolutionary argument against Naturalism, as well as giving a personal reflection on the highs and lows of a life of faith.

Part I: Reasons for God: Plantinga explains why he believes there is a God, and gives us a summary of his argument that says naturalism cannot be rationally believed.Part II: Where Richard Dawkins goes wrong: Plantinga suggests that Richard Dawkins is not only weak in argumentation, but that his conception of human nature is unlovely and dispiriting.

Part IV: Is God Good? In the final part of the interview, Plantinga responds to the criticism that the God of Old Testament is a moral monster. He also goes on to describe the hardest aspects of being a believer and the ways he has experienced God in his life.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Brother Alois became Prior of the Taizé community in 2005. He has co-ordinated the organization of the international meetings at Taizé and the European meetings held in various major cities of Europe.

And if the season of Advent came to renew hope in us? Not a facile optimism that closes its eyes to reality, but that strong hope that casts its anchor in God and enables us to live fully in the present day.

The Christian year begins with Advent, the time of expectant waiting. Why? To reveal to us the aspiration that lies within us and to deepen it: the desire for an absolute to which each person tends with their entire being-body, soul and mind-the thirst for love that burns in everyone, from tiny infants to elderly people, and that even the greatest human intimacy cannot completely satisfy.

We often experience this expectancy as a lack or as emptiness that is difficult to accept. But far from being an anomaly, it is part of our being. It is a gift; it leads us to open ourselves; it orients our entire being towards God.

If we dare to believe that the emptiness can be filled by God, then already we can live this expectant waiting with joy. Saint Augustine helps us when he writes: "A Christian's entire life is a holy desire. by making us wait, God extends this desire; by making us desire, he extends the soul; by extending the soul, he makes it able to receive... If you desire to see God, you already have faith."

Brother Roger loved those words of Saint Augustine and it was in that spirit that he prayed: "God, you love us: when we have the desire to welcome your love, that simple desire is already the beginning of a humble faith. In the depths of our soul little by little a flame is kindled. It may be quite faint but it keeps on burning."

The Bible emphasizes the long journey of the people of Israel and shows how God gradually prepared Christ's coming. What is passionate in the Bible is that it tells the whole story of love between God and humanity. It begins with the freshness of a first love; then come the limits and even the unfaithfulness. But God never gets tired of loving; he keeps searching for his people. In fact, the Bible is the history of God's faithfulness. "Can a woman forget her little child? Even if there was one who did, I will never forget you." (Isaiah 49:15)

Reading this long history can awaken in us the sense of gradual maturation. Sometimes we would like to have everything at once, without realizing the value of times of ripening! But the psalms offer a different outlook: "My times are in your hand, Lord" (Psalm 31:16).

Knowing how to wait... Being there, simply, with no ulterior motives. Kneeling in order to recognize, even with the body, that God acts differently than we imagine. Opening our hands as a sign of welcome. God's response will always be a surprise. By preparing us for Christmas, Advent prepares us to welcome.

Even if we are not always able to express our inner desire in words, keeping silence is already an expression of openness to God. During this season of Advent, we remember that God himself came, in Bethlehem, in a great silence.

The stained-glass window of the Annunciation in the church in Taizé shows the Virgin Mary recollected and open; she remains in silence in the expectation that the promise of God's angel is going to be fulfilled.

Just as the long history that came before Christ was the prelude to his coming to earth, in the same way Advent enables us each year to open ourselves gradually to Christ's presence in us. Jesus discerns our expectation just as one day he discerned that of Zacchaeus. And he says to us, as he said to him, "I must stay with you today" (Luke 19:5).

Will we let the joy of Zacchaeus come to birth in us? Then our hearts, like his, will open to others. He decided to give half of his goods to the poor. Today, we know that much of humankind is thirsting for a minimum of material well-being, for justice, for peace. During the season of Advent, are there forms of solidarity we can put into practice in our lives?

The texts we read in the liturgy during Advent express a kind of dream of universal peace: "peace abounds till the moon is no more" (Psalm 72:7), "endless peace" (Isaiah 9:7), a land where "wolves live with lambs" and where there is no more violence (Isaiah 11:1-9).

These are poetical texts, but they awaken a longing in us. And we see that "peace on earth" can come to birth in all the acts of reconciliation that take place, in the trust that people find in each other. Trust is like a small mustard-seed that will grow and, little by little, become the great tree of God's kingdom where "peace without end" flourishes. Trust on earth is a humble beginning to peace.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The following is made up of two magisterial passages from Newman's sermon "Watching", first published in 1838 (in Parochial and Plain Sermons, Volume 4).

Do you know the feeling in matters of this life, of expecting a friend, expecting him to come, and he delays? Do you know what it is to be in unpleasant company, and to wish for the time to pass away, and the hour strike when you may be at liberty? Do you know what it is to be in anxiety lest something should happen which may happen or may not, or to be in suspense about some important event, which makes your heart beat when you are reminded of it, and of which you think the first thing in the morning? Do you know what it is to have a friend in a distant country, to expect news of him, and to wonder from day to day what he is now doing, and whether he is well? Do you know what it is so to live upon a person who is present with you, that your eyes follow his, that you read his soul, that you see all its changes in his countenance, that you anticipate his wishes, that you smile in his smile, and are sad in his sadness, and are downcast when he is vexed, and rejoice in his successes? To watch for Christ is a feeling such as all these; as far as feelings of this world are fit to shadow out those of another.

He watches for Christ who has a sensitive, eager, apprehensive mind; who is awake, alive, quick-sighted, zealous in seeking and honouring Him; who looks out for Him in all that happens, and who would not be surprised, who would not be over-agitated or overwhelmed, if he found that He was coming at once.

And he watches with Christ, who, while he looks on to the future, looks back on the past, and does not so contemplate what his Saviour has purchased for him, as to forget what He has suffered for him. He watches with Christ, who ever commemorates and renews in his own person Christ's Cross and Agony, and gladly takes up that mantle of affliction which Christ wore here, and left behind Him when he ascended. And hence in the Epistles, often as the inspired writers show their desire for His second coming, as often do they show their memory of His first, and never lose sight of His Crucifixion in His Resurrection. Thus if St. Paul reminds the Romans that they "wait for the redemption of the body" at the Last Day, he also says, "If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." If he speaks to the Corinthians of "waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," he also speaks of "always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." If to the Philippians of "the power of His resurrection," he adds at once "and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." If he consoles the Colossians with the hope "when Christ shall appear," of their "appearing with Him in glory," he has already declared that he "fills up that which remains of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh for His body's sake, which is the Church." [Rom. viii. 17-28. 1 Cor. i. 7. 2 Cor. iv. 10. Phil. iii. 10. Col. iii. 4; i. 24.] Thus the thought of what Christ is, must not obliterate from the mind the thought of what He was; and faith is always sorrowing with Him while it rejoices. And the same union of opposite thoughts is impressed on us in Holy Communion, in which we see Christ's death and resurrection together, at one and the same time; we commemorate the one, we rejoice in the other; we make an offering, and we gain a blessing.

This then is to watch; to be detached from what is present, and to live in what is unseen; to live in the thought of Christ as He came once, and as He will come again; to desire His second coming, from our affectionate and grateful remembrance of His first. And this it is, in which we shall find that men in general are wanting. They are indeed without faith and love also; but at least they profess to have these graces, nor is it easy to convince them that they have not. For they consider they have faith, if they do but own that the Bible came from God, or that they trust wholly in Christ for salvation; and they consider they have love if they obey some of the most obvious of God's commandments. Love and faith they think they have; but surely they do not even fancy that they watch. What is meant by watching, and how it is a duty, they have no definite idea; and thus it accidentally happens that watching is a suitable test of a Christian, in that it is that particular property of faith and love, which, essential as it is, men of this world do not even profess; that particular property, which is the life or energy of faith and love, the way in which faith and love, if genuine, show themselves . . .

. . . Year passes after year silently; Christ's coming is ever nearer than it was. O that, as He comes nearer earth, we may approach nearer heaven! O, my brethren, pray Him to give you the heart to seek Him in sincerity. Pray Him to make you in earnest. You have one work only, to bear your cross after Him. Resolve in His strength to do so. Resolve to be no longer beguiled by "shadows of religion," by words, or by disputings, or by notions, or by high professions, or by excuses, or by the world's promises or threats. Pray Him to give you what Scripture calls "an honest and good heart," or "a perfect heart," and, without waiting, begin at once to obey Him with the best heart you have. Any obedience is better than none,-any profession which is disjoined from obedience, is a mere pretence and deceit. Any religion which does not bring you nearer to God is of the world. You have to seek His face; obedience is the only way of seeking Him. All your duties are obediences. If you are to believe the truths He has revealed, to regulate yourselves by His precepts, to be frequent in His ordinances, to adhere to His Church and people, why is it, except because He has bid you? and to do what He bids is to obey Him, and to obey Him is to approach Him. Every act of obedience is an approach,-an approach to Him who is not far off, though He seems so, but close behind this visible screen of things which hides Him from us. He is behind this material framework; earth and sky are but a veil going between Him and us; the day will come when He will rend that veil, and show Himself to us. And then, according as we have waited for Him, will He recompense us. If we have forgotten Him, He will not know us; but "blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching ... He shall gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if He shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants," [Luke xii. 37, 38.] May this be the portion of every one of us! It is hard to attain it; but it is woeful to fail. Life is short; death is certain; and the world to come is everlasting.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Matthew Woodley is the Senior Pastor at Three Village Church, New York City. He is best known for his articles in Leadership Journal,Discipleship JournalandRev! Magazine. His popular book on spirituality, Holy Fools: Following Jesus with Reckless Abandon, (SaltRiver) looks at radical discipleship from the time of the Desert Fathers to our own day. This moving passage comes from Devotions for Advent Holy Bible: Mosaic, published by Credo Communications.

A few years ago, on the first Sunday of Advent, I played John Lennon's song "Imagine" right before my sermon. It wasn't a universal hit. The lyrics may be controversial; he imagines a live-for-today existence with no heaven and no hell, but he longs for a better place where "the world will be as one."

In my defense, I clearly stated that, contra Lennon's lyrics, I believe in heaven, hell, the blood of Jesus, and things worth dying for. But Lennon was right about one thing: This world is broken, and we should yearn for its healing. Our hearts should ache for a better world.

Advent is the season of the church year that ignites that longing in our hearts. Before we rush into "Happy Holidays," we pause and let longing rise up within us. Throughout Advent we catch glimpses of a better world.

And as we catch glimpses of this Messiah-healed world, we long for its coming now. All of the best Advent hymns capture this spirit of groaning and longing for Messiah's better world. When we sing "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," with its dark, unresolved melody, it cracks our hearts open with longing's wound. And yet, we know Messiah has come, even as we wait for him to come again. Advent is a deliciously painful mix of joy and anguish.

This Advent-like longing is at the heart of Christian spirituality. Augustine's Latin phrase desiderium sinus cordis-"yearning makes the heart grow deep"-became a central theme in his pilgrimage on earth. Augustine cried out, "Give me one who yearns; . . . give me one far away in this desert, who is thirsty and sighs for the spring of the Eternal country. Give me that sort of man: he knows what I mean."

C. S. Lewis claimed that in this life the Advent-like stab of longing serves as a spiritual homing device, placed deep in our heart by God to lead us back to him. Thus, as Psyche realizes in Till We Have Faces, "It almost hurt me . . . like a bird in a cage when the other birds of its kind are flying home. . . . The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing . . . to find the place where all the beauty came from. . . . The longing for home."

Advent trains us to ache again. Of all the seasons of the church year, Advent is the time to acknowledge, feel, and even embrace the joyful anguish of longing for Messiah's birth and the world's rebirth. So we sing our aching songs while we light candles and festoon the church with greenery. That is Advent longing, and we couldn't imagine it any other way.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Austin Farrer (1904-1968), the son of a Baptist minister, was ordained in the Church of England and served as Dean of Magdalene College, Oxford, and Warden of Keble College. He was widely acclaimed as a preacher, poet, philosopher, biblical scholar and spiritual guide. This quote comes from The Crown of the Year : Weekly Paragraphs for the Holy Sacrament, Darce Press, London, 1952.

Our journey sets out from God in our creation, and returns to God at the final judgement.As the bird rises from the earth to fly, and must some time return to the earth from which it rose; so God sends us forth to fly, and we must fall back into the hands of God at last.But God does not wait for thefailure of our power and the expiry of our days to drop us back into his lap.He goes himself to meet us and everywhere confronts us.Where is the countenance which we must finally look in the eyes, and not be able to turn away our head?It smiles up at Mary from the cradle, it calls Peter from the nets, it looks on him with grief when he has denied his master.Our judge meets us at every step of our way, with forgiveness on his lips and succour in his hands.He offers us these things while there is yet time.Every day opportunity shortens, our scope for learning our Redeemer's love is narrowed by twenty-four hours, and we come nearer to the end of our journey, when we shall fall into the hands of the living God, and touch the heart of the devouring fire.

Advent brings Christmas, judgement runs out into mercy. For the God who saves us and the God who judges us is one God. We are not, even, condemned by his severity and redeemed by his compassion; what judges us is what redeems us, the love of God. What is it that will break our hearts on judgement day? Is it not the vision, suddenly unrolled, of how he has loved the friends we have neglected, of how he has loved us, and we have not loved him in return ; how, when we came (as now) before his altar, he gave us himself, and we gave him half-penitences, or resolutions too weak to commit our wills? But while love thus judges us by being what it is, the same love redeems us by effecting what it does. Love shares flesh and blood with us in this present world, that the eyes which look us through at last may find in us a better substance than our vanity.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Today is the last day of the Church's liturgical year. For those who use another form of the Daily Office, here is the passage from St Augustine of Hippo set as today's second reading in the Office of Readings in the Breviary. It's one of my favourite Augustine passages, and comes in the Office just after the reading of the Epistle of Jude, which climaxes (after a good number of stern warnings!) with the doxology:

"Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God, our Saviour through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen."

Let us sing alleluia here on earth, while we are still anxious and worrying, so that we may one day be able to sing it there in heaven, without any worry or care. Why anxious and worrying here? You must want me to be anxious, Lord, when I read, Is not man's life on earth a trial and a temptation? You must want me to worry when temptation is so plentiful that the Prayer itself tells us to worry, when we say, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us. Every day we are petitioners, every day we are trespassers. Do you want me to throw care to the winds, Lord, when every day I am requesting pardon for sins and assistance against dangers? After all, when I have said, because of past sins, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us, I must immediately go on to add, because of future dangers, Lead us not into temptation. And how can a people be in a good way, when they cry out with me, Deliver us from evil? And yet, my brethren, in this time that is still evil, let us sing alleluia to the good God, who does deliver us from evil.

Even here, among the dangers, among the trials and temptations of this life, both by others and by ourselves let alleluia be sung. God is faithful, he says, and he will not permit you to be tempted beyond what you are able to endure. So even here let us sing alleluia. Man is still a defendant on trial, but God is faithful. He did not say "he will not permit you to be tempted" but he will not permit you to be tempted beyond what you are able to endure; and with the temptation he will also make a way out, so that you may be able to endure it. You have entered into temptation; but God will also make a way out so that you do not perish in the temptation; so that like a potter's jar you may be shaped by the preaching and fired into strength by the tribulation. But when you enter the temptation, bear in mind the way out: because God is faithful, God will watch over you and guard your going in and your coming out.

Furthermore, when this body has become immortal and imperishable, when all temptation has been done away with; because the body is dead - why is it dead? - Because of sin. But the spirit is life, because of justice. So do we leave the body dead, then? No, but listen: But if the Spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead dwells within you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies. So you see: now the body receives its life from the soul, but then it will receive it from the Spirit.

O! what a happy alleluia there, how carefree, how safe from all opposition, where nobody will be an enemy, where no-one will ever cease to be a friend! God's praises sung there, sung here - here, by the anxious; there, by the carefree - here, by those who will die; there, by those who will live for ever - here, in hope; there, in reality - here, on our journey; there, in our homeland.

So now, my brethren, let us sing, not to delight our leisure, but to ease our toil. In the way that travellers are in the habit of singing, sing, but keep on walking. What does it mean, "keep on walking"? Go onward always - but go onward in goodness, for there are, according to the Apostle, some people who go ever onward from bad to worse. If you are going onward, you are walking; but always go onward in goodness, onward in the right faith, onward in good habits and behaviour. Sing, and walk onwards.